Şchioapa (Romania)

Alternative Names	'Şchioapa' is the original spelling. 'Schioapa' is it reduced to ASCII by missing off the accents. 'Shkwapa' is an English transcription of the normal Romanian pronunciation. 'Shkioapa' is an English transcription of the phonetic Romanian pronunciation. 'Shwarpa' is an English transcription of a common English mispronunciation.
Formation	Lines, V-hold.
Dance Structure	(A + B + C + D + E + F) x 4 + (A + Ending).
Music Structure	4 counts/bar, 4 bar phrases.
Music Speed	260 counts/min.
Choreographer	Mihai David.
Translation	Literally 'The Limper' but in practice a genre of Romanian dance.
Source	Nick Green & Liz Mellish circa 2002. However this is a reconstruction based on their Roma notation notes from that class for the steps combined with memories of their styling from the times they have lead it at Balkanplus in London more recently. Information about the origin from Nick in 2009.

Disclaimer: Mistakes are quite likely in the notes and no guarantees are made as to accuracy. There may be other versions of the same dance or other dances with the same name. Music may differ, particularly in speed, introduction and duration, between performers. The division into parts, bars & counts might not be standard. These notes of the dance are freely distributable (under GPL or CC-by-sa) in so much as the note's author's contribution but the choreography and/or collection were by other people and so their copyright might apply to the dance itself. Better than using notes, go to a dance class where it is taught by Nick Green & Liz Mellish.

A very fast showy dance with lots of rapid Cherkessia type foot crossing movements. Mostly done on the spot.

The name is misleading not just because the gentleness implied by the literal translation, 'The Limper', is not at all how the dance is but that 'Şchioapa' in Romanian dance usually refers to a genre of southern Moldavian and Muntenian dance with 5 beats per bar whereas this is more like a dance from the Braul genre set to music from a southern Oltenian Hora. The spelling is also misleading because Romanian spelling is claimed to be phonetic but the 'io' in this is normally pronounced in Romainian as 'w' rather than 'ee-oh' (& when said by English speakers the 'ch'/'k' sound is often dropped as 'shkw' is not a normal English cluster to start a word with).

In Balkanplus, where there is no audience & done purely for the dancers, this is usually done with two lines facing eachother because it is effective for when the lines go forwards towards eachother. For performance dancing a single line facing the audience works well & suits a stage (the combination of 12 bars on the spot, 2 going diagonally R forwards & 2 going diagonally L backwards neatly returns to same place). Another option is for lines behind one another which is useful for teaching with those who know the dance in the front line & learners/followers in the line behind.

The division into 6 parts of 4 bars each is how Nick notated it. This is one part per phrase of music but it does cause a stamping pattern that crosses the boundary from Part C to Part D to be split. Alternatively splitting it into 3 parts of 8 bars where the music changes (the phrases are each paired) does not clarify the change in stepping between Part A & Part B and makes the parts rather long to summarise. Another alternative I've seen used is to not subdivide the sequence & to treat the dance as one big part of 24 bars. Although I count the music as 4 counts per bar ("1 2 3 4") Nick's notes count it as 2 per bar ("1 a 2 a") and a friend of mine who is more musical than me told me that the music is in 2 beats per bar.

Some people consider this difficult to follow because of the speed but following it in a party-like session not too bad as it is mainly on the spot (so getting it wrong does not affect anyone else), it is fast (so easy to find places to fudge corrections of which foot one is on) & most uncertain bits can be filled with Cherkessias. However I consider it tricky to lead because it so easy to forget which part one is on after doing a block of nearly identical Cherkessias.

Some people count the steps of each of the Cherkessia blocks. I instead concentrate on remembering the distinctive figures of each part and fill the gaps with Cherkessias. Whenever a Cherkessia block starts with the R foot free (Parts A, C & E), it starts with R close. If the L foot is free instead (Parts B, D & F) then the block is preceded by a leap on the L foot and starts with R across infront.

Style: Upright (except where stated). On balls of feet (except where stated). High knee lifts (if possible) in the Cherkessia stepping. The leaps onto the L foot ending with the R foot raised across are like small Scissor Kicks.

Introduction

Summary: None.

There is no introduction. Start immediately. However that is difficult when one can't see the band and, due to the speed, it is difficult to catch on the first step so an easier alternative is to miss out one or more parts from the first time round. If doing that I find it easiest to miss out the whole first time through (i.e. start on 2nd Part A) but that consumes a lot of the dance. Next easiest is to start on the first Part C (start of 2nd part of the music) then next easiest the first Part B (start of 2nd phrase).

Part A

Summary: Slow R splat infront, diagonal, (almost) side. Cherkessias for 9 counts. Pause.

Start

Weight on L foot. Facing forwards from the line.

1-2	Flexing L knee slightly, splat (stamp with foot flat, knee straight & leg angled out infront) R foot infront without weight transfer. The splat is on the first count.
3-4	Repeat counts 1-2 (R splat without weight transfer) but flexing L knee a bit more & with the R leg & foot turned out diagonally to the R (about 60 deg cw from the straight infront direction).

1-2	Repeat bar 1 counts 3-4 (R splat without weight transfer) but flexing L knee even more (so upper leg is about 45 deg from the vertical) & with the R leg & foot more turned out to the R (about 120 deg cw from the straight infront direction).
3	R close (L knee straightens).
4	L across infront.

1	R in place.
2	L close.
3	R across infront.
4	L in place.

1	R close.
2	L across infront.
3	R in place. (From bar 2 count 3 to here comprises 9 steps of Cherkessias.)
4	Pause.

Part B

Summary: Leap onto L. Cherkessias for 6 counts. Travel diagonally R in with (R splat infront, L close, ditto diagonally) x 1.75. Pause.

Start

Weight on R foot. Facing forwards from the line.

1-2	Leap on L foot in place ending with R foot raised across infront.
3	R across infront.
4	L in place.

1	R close.
2	L across infront.
3	R in place.
4	L close. (From bar 1 count 2 to here comprises 6 steps of Cherkessias.)

1	Leaning forwards from the waist, splat R infront with weight transfer.
2	L close.
3	Splat R 45 deg diagonally to the R infront.
4	L close.

1-3	Repeat bar 3 counts 1-3 (R splat infront, L close, R splat diagonally infront).
4	Pause.

The upright position of the Cherkessias in bar 2 is not compatible with getting immediately into the forward leaning position for the first splat of the forward travelling of bar 3 so one needs to sneak in a change of balance during the latter part of bar 2, i.e. getting into the lean of bar 3 has to be started slightly in advance.

Part C

Summary: Slow L across infront, R close. Diagonally L out with L side, R close, L side, R lift. Cherkessias for 7 counts. L stamp.

Start

Weight on R foot. Facing forwards from the line.

1-2	L across infront turning to face 45 deg cw of the direction perpendicularly forwards from the line. During this step straighten up from forward torso lean.
3-4	R close turning to face 45 deg acw of the direction perpendicularly forwards from the line.

1	L to the side (thereby moving diagonally L backwards relative to the direction of the line).
2	R close.
3	Repeat count 1 (L to the side).
4	Lifting R foot, turn to face the direction perpendicularly forwards from the line.

1	R close.
2	L across infront.
3	R in place.
4	L close.

1	R across infront.
2	L in place.
3	R close. (From bar 3 count 1 to here comprises 7 steps of Cherkessias.)
4	L in place flat footed stamp without weight transfer.

Part D

Summary: (L in place, R stamp), mirror. Leap onto L. Cherkessias for 5 counts. Pause. Slow leap L & R.

Start

Weight on R foot. Facing forwards from the line.

1	L in place.
2	R in place flat footed stamp without weight transfer.
3-4	Repeat counts 1-2 in mirror image (R in place, L stamp).

As Part B bar 1 (leap on L in place with R foot raised across infront, R across infront, L in place).

1-3	As Part B bar 2 counts 1-3 (R close, L across infront, R in place). (From bar 2 count 3 to here comprises 5 steps of Cherkessias.)
4	Pause.

1	Leap onto L to the side raising R foot to besides L calf.
2	Pause
3	Repeat counts 1-2 in mirror image (leap onto R to the side raising L foot).
4	Swivel to face 45 deg acw of the direction perpendicularly forwards from the line ready for the start of the next part.

Part E

Summary: Diagonally out L with (L side, R close) x 2.5, L hop to face in. Cherkessias for 9 counts. Pause.

Start

Weight on R foot. Facing 45 deg acw of the direction forwards from the line.

1-3	As Part C bar 2 counts 1-3 (diagonally L out with L side, R close, L side).
4	Repeat count 2 (R close).

1	Repeat bar 1 count 1 (L to the side)
2	Hop on L turning to face perpendicularly forwards from the line.
3-4	As Part A bar 2 counts 3-4 (R in place, L across infront).

3-4

As Part A bars 3-4 (R in place, L close, R across infront, L in place, R close, L across infront, R in place, pause). (From bar 2 count 3 to bar 4 count 3 comprises 9 steps of Cherkessias.)

Part F

Summary: Leap onto L. Cherkessias for 11 counts. Pause. Leap onto L.

Start

Weight on R foot. Facing forwards from the line.

1-2

As Part B bars 1-2 (leap on L foot in place raising R foot across infront, R across infront, L in place, R close, L across infront, R in place, L close).

Repeat bar 1 count 3 to bar 2 count 2 (R across infront, L in place, R close, L across infront).

1	R in place (From bar 1 count 3 to here comprises 11 steps of Cherkessias.)
2	Pause.
3-4	Repeat bar 1 counts 1-2 (leap on L foot in place raising R foot across infront).

Ending

Summary: Leap onto both feet. Splat R infront.

Start

Weight on R foot. Facing forwards from the line.

1	Leap from the L foot ending up on both feet with feet together.
2	Pause.
3	With bent L knee, splat R foot infront.

The recording of the music I've got ends on count 1. The final splat is done after the music stops.